Shoe care is more of an art than a science, and some of it is just common sense.

1. Clean your shoes with a brush that has stiff enough bristles to remove any surface dirt from your shoes. If your shoes have any obvious dirt on them when you take them off, then brush them then. If you have a mirror shine on the toe or heel counter, then wipe that area with a slightly damp cloth. You can also give your shoes a quick brush before you put them on just to bring up a shine. You should also do a more detailed cleaning of your shoes every so often (see previous posts for suggested frequency) with the leather cleaner of your choice.

2. Saphir Renovateur is a great product, but it is not a replacement for shoe polish, so only use it now and then (perhaps as part of your detailed shoe cleaning, after leather cleaner), and use shoe polish otherwise.

3. Whenever you add shoe polish to a shoe it should be brushed to smooth out the wax, help drive in the oils, and remove some of the excess. The only exception to this would be when adding additional paste polish to create a mirror shine (which should not be brushed)..

4. You can get a very good polish glow with just cream shoe polish and some good brushing. Buffing with a cloth will produce more of a shine, but you never want to buff a true mirror shine, as it will impact the glazing.

K thanks! But one question, you're saying for my frequent cleanings I should just brush and polish, but for my more detailed cleaning I should use the Saphir Renovateur? Why though? Wouldn't it make sense to use the Reno more frequently just to clean the shoes and use polish when the shoe needs some shine?

Hey Gerry, depends on the color, but I've used cordovan cream polish (I know, I know, you're not supposed to use cream) on my #8 (Alden boot cream) and brown (Saphir cognac cordovan cream) and they work fine to darken the shell a few shades. Just as always, thin coats. Wax polish also works fine but I find the cordovan creams to have more color.

Boots I've used cream on (note they are not Alden so they do not have that glossy finish shell):